The Simiens part 3

The rest of the trip was felt feeling ill. Not that I didn't get some hiking in, but it wasn't really as much fun now that I was suffering from chronic fatigue. The next day I took the short route along the road with our cook and the mules. Our cook Sisay, who seemed to have experience with sick people in the mountains secretly hired a mule for me. He didn't say it was for me until he caught up with me panting my way halfway up a steep slope. He'd ridden the mule from the bottom of the slope after letting me go ahead and politely suggested that maybe I'd like to ride part of the way. Gratefully I accepted and rode a placid mule the rest of the way up the hill through barley fields and animals grazing. That mule was the best animal ride I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, it was just to the road and then it had to go home. I walked from there with frequent breaks, but made it more or less intact to our final camp. Chennak (sp?).

Chennak is situated in a sheltered valley full of gelada baboons, with a picturesque stream running through it and small palm tree-ish plants growing throughout it. We didn't hike much once we got here, but we didn't really need to as right next to the sheltered valley is a huge dropoff that has some breathtaking views. Between these and the least worried baboons we were pretty entertained for the remaining time we stayed in the Simiens. This turned out to be a lot longer than we'd intended because our driver was 6 hours late. There had been a gas shortage in Gondor and we were all quite annoyed with him for not thinking to fill up the day before. It's hard to get good help. Getting in at midnight I was too exhausted to shower and just fell straight into a stupor that would last a couple days until I eventually got better.

The Ethiopian government seems to have backed off on their attempts to block access to Blogger so I'm able to do my own posting again. Thanks so much to Michelle for her help while I was unable to post. If you're interested in donating to VSO, but have been too lazy to do so up until now, please click up on the left to make a donation. VSO is run on a combo of government and donor support, so every little bit helps.